EXCELLENT DRAW AT FOXHALL

NEWS Thursday 16th July 2015, 10:26pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

In a first-class match at Foxhall tonight the Border Roofing Monarchs and the Witches fought out a 45-45 draw with Craig Cook once again the star of the show.

It has been a happy hunting ground for our captain and team in the last two or three seasons, and this has to be counted a very good result in the absence of Sam Masters and Rob Branford.

Not that we have any complaints about the performances of our guests but given that Sam Masters had scored a five-ride paid max on his last visit, you have to feel his absence was significant. We'll just have to put up with that for the time being and at least the Smiler was there in the pits helping the team.

There was some excellent racing (on a very well prepared track) throughout this match. Danny King broke the tapes in heat one but won the heat off a 15 metre handicap. It looked early in the race as if he had the speed but our pair of Worrall and Sedgmen didn't really show enough urgency.

Two heats later we were heading for a German 5-1 but Tungate again showed that the outside line was working well with a great double overtake.

In heat 6 it was the first King v Cook match-up, and although King gated off the inside, not only did Craig pull off a perfect cut back to pass him, he also knocked 0.3 secs off his own track record!

Heat 7 was another good race as Covatti punched his way inside Wolbert going in to lap two.

Unfortunately Gino Manzares crashed through the fence and out of the match in heat 9 and we wish him well. Cook won the rerun and we levelled the scores.

We then lost a 5-1 only to bounce back with two of our own! In heat 11 Sedgmen and Worrall headed Covatti, Justin's second win of the night, and in heat 12 not only did Kevin take advantage of Manzares' absence but Max Clegg popped up to take a comfortable second over Morris.

Heat 13 was the best ride yet as Craig Cook caught and passed King on the second lap for a shared race.

Heat 14 was unfortunately marred by Ashley Morris getting a massive flier off gate 1, just making it under the tapes, and with Tungate backing him up a 1-5 was inevitable.

So it was 42-42 going into the last race and the nerveless Cook beat King for the third time. Justin Sedgmen couldn't peg back Tungate so it was a draw.

We certainly had cause for complaint over the heat 14 start, but on the other hand the Manzares injury and an early engine failure for Tungate hampered the Witches, so it was a fair result.

A great effort by the team in the circumstances but another injury worry with Kevin Wolberrt struggling with the shoulder he hurt in a crash last Friday. It never rains...

Full Result Details